December 31, 2023 – It’s time to start thinking about what vegetables, herbs, and flowers you want to grow in 2024. Do you want basics, exotics, heirlooms, hybrids, organics or combinations of these?
Let’s start with the basics of onions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and okra. Where will you get seeds? This can be very simple or as complicated as you want. On the simple side, go to your local nursery, country, or hardware store. They’ll have just about anything you want such as cucumbers from 4” to 36” long, tomatoes from grape to 2 pounders, and peppers from mild to scorching. Okra might be available in only one species, but other sources are available. Flowers and herbs will be available in abundance. The biggest purchasing advantage is price. They’re less expensive than ordering and have no shipping costs.
For other desired varieties, you can go online, and search. A slight problem is that growers tend to name their own varieties, so you have to spend considerable time reading the specifics or each variety. Product catalogs are usually free. Two of the best include multiple vegetables/herbs/flowers, although they specialize in tomatoes and to a lesser extent, peppers. They are Totally Tomatoes and Tomato Growers. Tomato Growers, for example has enough tomato varieties (329!) that you would need over ten 100’ rows just to plant one of each variety! For dreamers, perhaps the best catalog is the baker seed catalog, which retails for around $14, but has information you just won’t find anywhere else. It’s often called the dreamers or droolers catalog!
Then, you can go online and type vegetable seed catalogs which will give you an exhaustive list. Again, they are nearly always free. PS. Don’t waste your time/money buying organic vegetable seeds. They have no advantage and exist primarily to fatten organic grower profits!!!
